A mysterious bear named Podington took the Internet by storm in 2007, releasing three beautifully crafted songs a week. Podington's podcast rubbed shoulders with KEXP's Song of the Day and NPR's All Songs Considered atop the the iTunes charts, while his story captivated Morning Edition, The Globe and Mail, Wired.com's Listening Post, and and dozens of influential music blogs. The experiment inspired countless new works of art, and translated into commercial success.

The true identity of Podington Bear remained a mystery throughout the entire project. Then, upon the release of a retrospective box set in July 2008 his identity was revealed. Chad Crouch, proprietor of Portland Oregon's influential HUSH Records, and former bandleader for the group Blanket Music was the big-eared culprit.

Since then, Crouch has continued to record instrumental music as Podington Bear, while significantly broadening his ouevre to include minimalism, neoclassical, ambient, soul, and simply more of what people were attracted to in the first place: Music that surprises and delights, regardless of genre.

Dear Artist. I uploaded a video today to YouTube and got a hit for Third Party Content on "Podington Bear - Can I Talk to You?" from a user or tag by the name of "rumblefish". What is up? Does YouTube still flag FMA music or is someone stealing your stuff or is this you and I'm still free to use it?

very upset when I use this music on youtube it states I am using something I am not supposed to and places and ad on my video. As i don't want ads on my video or disputes on my channel for copyright violations I will not be using this music. Not sure whats up with the license--either the creator is reneging on his idea of making these songs for people to use (non commercially) or something is wrong in the way youtube notices these songs. I don't want ads on my videos. Do not use these songs on youtube unless you want a mark against you.

moonofsilver: I hear your frustration. Content ID disputes with YouTube are a byproduct of working with a distributor to release my music in channels like iTunes and Spotify and so forth. I assure you, I'm not the only musician on FMA who has this entanglement. YouTube's language is too stern--there is no penalty to using my repertoire. By default YouTube will program click-to-hide banners to offset a .0007 cent music stream royalty. That's it. FMA users may use my music (CC BYNC) in any other conceivable venue, including Vimeo, with no strings attached.

I have fought the same song three times against the same user. YouTube's automatic flagging system is garbage. I have fought about 8 times and won in the first stages, and have been taken to the second stage once, fought and won. It's frustrating though. Just go into your Video Manager and click the "third party content detected" and when it opens, dispute it. Tell them that it has a creative commons licence and link the licence which is linked on every song on FMA as well as FMA's about section and Podbear's user page. That is what i do and i have no problems after that. YouTube can't do anything about a CC license, it's just that it detects the same sound track in another video, which is monotized, and flags it. It's horrible and they need more humans fixing it.

Hello Podington Bear,
we are a group of students and a teacher from Germany and produce Brickfilms with LEGO. We found your song "Silk" and used it together with "Roomba" as our soundtrack in our film "Der 8:00 Uhr Termin":
http://youtu.be/jB-Dmeb7f7E
Credits were given in the end titles.

Dear podington bear,
I am a Video artist.
Firstly, your music is amazing for me. Especially "Happiness is" is really great. I use your song in my Video. Thank you in advance. Next time if you wnat to watch my video, I would like to show you by email. Have a nice day. I am looking forward to listening your fantastic new music.

Dear Podington Bear,
for our second Brickfilm with LEGO we used your songs "Puzzler" and "Lonesome" as our soundtrack. Thanks a lot for your magnificient work.
"Seleukia":
https://youtu.be/sA17RshMui8
Credits were given in the end titles.